Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 5, 1994 TAG: 9407050130
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Kathleen Wilson Staff Writer
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But not the Greenvale Nursery School.
The school recently celebrated its 60th anniversary as one of only two area day-care centers that set fees based on an ability to pay. To celebrate, it refurbished its playground.
Now that phase one is complete, the crew that gathered to celebrate had a raffle to begin raising funds for phase two.
It was a breezy day to eat hot dogs and play in the sand, with balloons dancing all over.
Kourtney Pierce, 10; Toni Pierce, 8; Laquanda Gill, 10; Denota Trent, 4; and Keisha Smith, 5, were just a handful of the children who have passed through Greenvale at some point in their childhood.
Keisha's favorite part of the school was playing in the sandbox.
Toni misses the all-day swims at the YMCA.
Kourtney Pierce proudly told me she's started at Greenvale in kindergarten and ``worked her way downstairs.''
Downstairs is where students eventually go when they enter elementary school and come to Greenvale for after-school care.
Tiffany Gaines, 11; Craig Terry, 11; and Tuarus Terry, 8 - three students from the Highland Park Magnet School - turned out as volunteers and did face-painting. The trio perfected this craft when they volunteered at Festival in the Park.
Sandra Carroll, director of Greenvale, introduced me to Jean Mitchell, who at 86, has either served as a volunteer or an employee at the school for more than 50 years.
``She's gotten many a child off on the right foot,'' said Sandra proudly.
Jean still keeps an album of all the children she's gotten to know and looks at it frequently.
That album may play a key role in another of Greenvale's upcoming projects.
The school hopes to locate its alumni.
All 11,000 of them.
|n n| At last, we're ready to release the results of our highly scientific* ``Who's the Sexiest Flintstone Character?'' poll of a few weeks ago. My favorite vote was from a man who voted for Fred because he said Fred seemed ``like a great guy to live next door to and drink bourbon and smoke see-gars with.''
Betty.................................37.5%
Barney..............................20.8%
Fred..................................16.5%
Wilma.................................8.3%
Pebbles..............................4.2%
Bamm-Bamm....................4.2%
Dino....................................4.2%
Cary Granite......................4.2%
*Margin of error in this poll is absolutely zero. I used a calculator.
|n n| All right, I'll admit it. I'm not much into the royals, even though I have always wanted a job where a tiara was required.
I am far more likely to pick up People magazine when John Kennedy Jr. is on the cover than if Charles or Di are.
So when I told y'all a couple weeks ago that Clara Whitlock ran into the Duke of Windsor during a recent trip to Russia, I goofed.
Clara ran into the Prince of Wales.
That would be Prince Charles, the guy with the ears Clara claimed weren't as goofy looking in person as they look in photographs.
|n n| You know, Jack Arnold, 12, didn't seem all that impressed that Clara had met the Duke or the Prince or whoever, anyway.
He called the Mingling line to let me know he'd had a far more impressive brush with fame.
Jack actually got to meet Janet Jackson. Sat in the front row at a recent concert in Washington, D.C., and somehow finagled his way backstage and conversed with the sister of the Gloved One.
I haven't been able to reach Jack by phone for more intimate details, but will relay the excited message he left.
``It was so awesome! She was so beautiful! And really, really, really nice! She talked to me! A lot! I love her! She's the nicest person in the whole world! It was so great!''
|n n| ``Trash?'' a 12-year-old boy holding a big Hefty asked the woman sitting across the table from me a couple months ago.
``Hey! If anyone's going to call her trash, it's going to be me,'' joked the woman's significant other.
``Well I guess I beat you to it,'' wise-cracked the 12-year-old.
As Yogi Berra would say, it was deja vu all over again. Something like this had happened to me before...
``Your last name isn't McGraw, is it?'' I asked the kid.
It was. It figured. This was Bobby McGraw, the 12-year-old son of Steve McGraw, Clerk of Circuit Court in Salem.
Glibness runs in the family.
Over a year ago, while writing a story about kids and braces, a 14-year-old sitting in the dentist's chair kept a keen eye on me scribbling in my notebook.
``Are you a psychiatrist or what?'' he cracked sarcastically.
No, I told him. I am a reporter.
``Even worse,'' he replied.
I told their dad his sons' quick wit and gift of gab seem to have them both destined for a career in politics.
Or stand-up comedy.
``Oh, please don't put THAT in the paper,'' he laughed.
by CNB